Good to see Keegan making signings in the right places. Coloccini should be a great pairing with Taylor. Them two centre back, Beye right back and Enrique/Bassong left back should be an improvement on our previous defences.

Don't know if bassong is going to be a big hit, but he did well pre-season, impressed KK enough to sign him so hopefully he'll do good.

i think he will be used more as a back-up for CB. I still feel keegan wants a proper LB to challenge Enrique. I have not watched him play but i don't see him being that good anyway.

We have sold Abdoulaye Faye for 2.25million to stoke and Shola Ameobi has been given permission to speak to Ipswich Town

If you were looking at potential full backs, I'm surprised you didn't try for Shorey, despite Villa perhaps being able to offer better things in terms of European Football. He was available at a very decent price and would have been easily good enough to challenge Enrique for a place in the side in my opinion.

I personally would rather get a younger left back for cover. I want to stick with Enrique for at least another season. He has worked hard over the summer and lost over a stone. He never had a pre season last year and towards the end of the season he started to play much better.
Also i dont think Shorey would have came to us over Villa. IMO we are the bigger club but he would get more football at Villa.

Coloccini looks like money well spent going on today's performance. Doesn't look bad up at corners either, so hopefully he continues to play well.

I was also impressed with Gutierrez, from what i saw from the first half. He's got good pace, strength and can cause a defence problems. I also saw him helping out in defence aswell, so he also looks like money well spent.

What's Gutierrez's natural position? Left-wing? Although he has looked versatile from pre-season viewings.

A side of...

-------------------- Martins ------- Owen ----------------------

---- N'Zogbia ---- Guthrie --- Creative Midf. -- Gutierrez --

----- Enrique ---- Collocini ------ Taylor --------- Beye -----

----------------------------- Given -----------------------------


...ain't bad at all.

Or alternatively Gutierrez on the left and Milner on the right. Either, or.

Against the better teams or away from home then bring Butt in and sacrifice a striker to make things difficult and more compact.

Gutierrez can play on both. Keegan seems start him on the left because him and Milner are our best wingers. They can both can play right and left so maybe they will swap as the season goes on. I agree with what you say about Butt. He was a very important player for us last season but i think Guthrie looks better. Even though Butt got man of match i thought he was out classed by Guthrie. We are still waiting for that creative midfielder! I don't even know who we are after, the club are keeping things very quiet.

I have to give Keegan credit - he has made some great signings this summer, and although Newcastle fans should not get carried away, they can certainly be more possitive about the future of this team. I was also very impressed by the moral throughout the team. They all seem to be playing for each other, and were playing with their tails up.

I would like to know who has been involved in the transfers so far. Many people have said that Keegan has "no control" over who comes in or even goes out. Hopefully that is wrong. A lot of things have changed since Keegan was last here. We now have the likes of Dennis Wise (Executive Director), Tony Jimenez (Vice President and Player Recruitment) and Jeff Vetere (Technical Co-ordinator). From what i understand Wise and Vetere will scout players and Jimenez will conclude the deals. I pretty much know for a fact that Keegan was behind the singing of Guthrie but i don't know about the rest. We have bought from Spain twice this season and it looks set to continue with the loan singing of Javier Saviola. The main reason for this is that both Jimenez and Vetere have very good contacts over there. By the looks of what we have bought so far i don't really care how the "team" works. The only problem is the speed of deals but hopefully that will improve over time.

So no one knows anything about the ''wow signing'' Ashley has promised?

Could it be someone like Moutinho or Aimer? Talking of Aimer, didn't you bid for him a while back. What happened?

He went to Benfica. There was talk that we tried to get him at the last moment but we must have failed. I would love to get Moutinho though.

Any truth in the Saviola talks? If they're true, even if it's just a loan, then that would be fantastic. At his best while at Barcelona, he was such a good player. If we got him, the Argentenian influence could really boost our squad, as the two that we've signed have already shown.

Regarding the deals already made, the club have been so much better with them this season than last. It could may well have something to do with the three guys JJ mentioned who are working for the club in the background. But something has definetly changed, with that being the obvious conclusion. Last season, player such as Smith, Cacapa, Rozehnal, Faye we brought in. On paper, they looked like fantastic sigings. Smith had a great record with leeds, cacapa was lyon captain with bags of experience, good things were thought of Rozehnal aswell. But it turns out those 4 i mentioned were useless last season. faye was half decent at a push, but he's already moved on.

This season we've only got 4 new faces, but three already look settled and useful to the club. this season's signings look far more planned out and thought about than last.

Saviola is a very good player but who knows how he'd do in the EPL.

Maybe it's a risk worth taking. He's a good enough player, but how he does in the EPL as you say is a different story.

Real Madrid have confirmed we are in talks.

I hope this isn't the wow signing. I used to love watching him play for Barca but we are in greater need for a playmaker type.

He can make things happen though.

It is said that we put a bid in for Ruud Van Nistelrooy and they said no but you can have Javier Saviola instead. haha

---------------------- Martins ---- Owen --------------------

---- Gutierrez ---- Guthrie --------Butt -------- Milner --

----- Enrique --- Collocini ------ Taylor --------- Beye ----

----------------------------- Given -----------------------------

Harper
Bassong
Cacapa
Geremi
N’Zogbia
Duff
Barton
Smith
Viduka

This is what our first team squad looks like. At the moment there is only one change I would make and that would be to change Butt for a more creative midfielder. Last season we lacked this and Keegan needed to change his formation to help us. Owen played just behind the front two of Martins and Viduka. In this position he was able to link the midfield and forwards together. I don’t want him to have to do it this season though. Why should he have to? He is our main goal scorer and his job shouldn’t be to make up for then lack of creativity. We also could do with cover up front and at the back. However, I would need a crystal ball to tell you which players he has in mind as the club are keeping things really quiet this season. In a perfect world I would love it if we could get Riquelme as the playmaker. He is a world-class midfielder and he could take this club to the next level. But we all know that he wouldn’t be interested in joining us. The lack of European football and overall success will put off the better players. When Keegan was here in the past he was able to persuade players to come and play for him. Times have changed and footballers are interested in different things now. This means that our “team” (consisting of Dennis Wise [Executive Director], Tony Jimenez [Vice President and Player Recruitment] and Jeff Vetere [Technical Co-ordinator]) will have to pull out another surprise. Not many people knew much about Gutierrez when we signed him. However, after just one match he has already made an impact. Personally I think this will be the way we need to do our business from now on. Over the last few years we have bought “rejects”. People who have failed to make an impact or players who are on the down. Instead we need to use our “team” to find the best unknown players around. Players who are not household names, but who have the attributes and the ability to succeed in the EPL. Of course this will not be easy but we are paying the “team” a hell of a lot of money to watch football matches. They should be able to do this. Keegan has already stated that he is after players who have the desire and heart to play for this great club. The first time I seen Luque play for Newcastle, it was clear he didn’t have what it takes to succeed. He was weak, slow and looked like he couldn’t care less about the club. It is a whole different story for Gutierrez. The times when we could attract world-class players is gone, so this is the second best thing. We have already wasted millions upon millions on fading stars, so why not give this a go….

That is a very respectable first team side for me but like you said it lacks a creative player. I'm at a loss to think who would sign and be good enough but there will be someone.

Good post JJ.

Our best line-up, which you have rightly posted, does look very good indeed on paper. And it even looked good in its first outing, despite Owen being replaced by Duff and Zog playing instead of Enrique. But even still, the side with Duff and Zog in loked just as good. I would have to say a weakness for that team is Zog playing left back. Enrique looked good in his first season, and Bassong is a full-back aswell who seemed OK pre-season.

Also, i dont like the fact that Butt and Guthrie are the two centre midfielders that we have to play at the moment. It's hard to decide which one to play, because having both in the centre doesnt work, or it won't work as season. Butt was one of out best players last season, and Guthrie was one of our best players against Man Utd. It has to be one or the other, not both. but this is where the problem of finding a creative centre mid comes in. We haven't got long to find someone.

However if you look at our bench, should everyone be fit, it is very strong indeed. Great back-up keeper, which not every team has. Some good defenders. And having Duff N'zogbia and Viduka on the bench just shows how good are strongest team is, or should be. Maybe this is the season where the team finally clicks, and out good players actually look good, not just average as they did last season.